The Victims

On September 24, 1941, Hona Boyarsky and his son Avram were still alive. All other members of their family were already in the mass graves in Alyta and Butrimantz. Hiding in haylofts, running, hunted, the father and son created a chilling document of what had happened to the Jews of the shtetl Butrimantz. The document was a 40-page letter written in Yiddish depicting the heinous events that were taking place. It ended with a list of the names of the victims.

To my dear Leahle, wrote Hona to his relative in Palestine. If through some chance this letter should reach you, I must tell you how the town of Butrimantz and our family and other Jews were destroyed by the Lithuanians and the Germans .

Alter and Noah [Hona's sons] were taken to Alyta on the 12th of August and were shot to death. Sarah and Chana [Hona's wife and daughter] were taken away on the 9th of September. Avram and I are still alive.

Some time later (the exact date is not known) Hona and Avram were caught in the Daug region and executed. Avram was 15, his father, 53. Their letter to Leahle had ended:

Now I will write you precisely about Butrimantz, the names of those who were shot in Alyta and those who were shot in Butrimantz. Should this letter reach you, Leahle, or someone, let the relatives know at least where their parents, brothers, sisters perished.

After the war, the Boyarsky letter was found by a farmer in his hayloft. He forwarded it to Riva Lozansky, one of the small group of Butrimantz survivors. Although the roster of names of the victims is as complete as possible, the Boyarskys noted: All these that we have listed were killed, except for those who went to Russia, and we do not know whether they are living or dead. More Jews were killed in Butrimantz, but we don't know their names or families.

The Victims

Jews of Butrimantz who were murdered in 1941
(in Alyta and in Butrimantz indicate where the individual family members were killed)

A

ABRAMOWITZ, Motel, and his wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
ABRAMOWITZ, Shamson (a butcher), in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
ABRAMOWITZ, Shmuel, in Alyta. His wife, in Butri-mantz.
ADELSON, Zlota, in Butrimantz. Her son BenZion, in Alyta.
ALFOWITZ, Motel (a smith), and two daughters and a son, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz. Their eldest son, Leiba, went to Russia and died there.
ARPAHSANDER (a teacher) was shot on the road to Alyta during a forced march there. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.

B

BADASH, Alter, and his wife and some of their children, in Butrimantz. Two other children, in Alyta.
BADASH, Berl, and his wife, Chana Malka (Lozansky), in Troki. (At the time they were living in Anushishok.)
BADASH, Moshe, and two sons and a daughter, in Alyta. His wife and their youngest daughter, in Butrimantz.

93

BAKSHITZKY, Yosef, and his wife and their daughter Rashl, in Butrimantz. His son Boruch went to Russia. Boruch's wife, Miriam (Kalemitzky), in Alyta.
BALASHER, Volpiansky's son-in-law, in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
BARCHMAN, Hinda, in Butrimantz.
BAVER, Aron, his wife, Reizel, and their daughter Asna and son Akiva, in Butrimantz.
BAVER, Sarah, in Butrimantz. Her son, in Alyta. Her daughter Tsvia and family, in Zhezmir. Another daughter, in Butrimantz.
BERNSTEIN, Yankel, was captured while in hiding in Maldanis' forest. Although he was tortured before he was executed - his fingers chopped off one by one - he refused to divulge the names of those who had given him food because the penalty for helping Jews was death. He was murdered by Lithuanians who surrounded the forest, searching for fleeing Jews. He died a hero on April 15, 1942, during his second year in hiding. His wife died in Butrimantz.
BINDER, Meyer, and his sister, in Alyta. Two brothers, in Vilna.
BLOCH, Freida, in Butrimantz. Her son Avraham and his daughter, in Alyta. Avraham's wife and their son, in Butrimantz.
BLOCH, Shmuel, and his wife and children, in Butrimantz.
BOFTER (family name unknown), in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
BOYARSKY, Binyamin, and his son Yosef, in Alyta. Shlomo, who was in the army, was shot by the Germans in the early days of the war. His wife and their son Alter, in Butrimantz.

94

BOYARSKY, Hona, and his son Avram were caught in hiding and murdered in the Daug region in Sokolowski's fields. Hona's wife Sarah and their daughter Chana, in Butrimantz. Sons Alter and Noah, in Alyta. While in hiding, Hona and Avram compiled this list of victims which was part of a letter/diary written to Leah Boyarsky in Israel.

C

CHAPNIK, Hirsh Yehuda, and his wife and their son Moshe and his family, in Alyta. Their son Dovid and his wife were shot while in hiding.
CHOLEWITZ, Hirsh, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.

D

DAVINSKY, Leib (a shoemaker), nicknamed Balcon because of his height, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz. Their sons Yaakov and Zaiv, in Alyta. Their son Moshe Itzhak, in Yezna.
DAVINSKY, Velvel (son-in-law of Motel Shuster), and his wife, in Butrimantz.
DIMENSTEIN, Shmuel, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
DONSKY, Shmuel, in Alyta. His parents, Itzhak and Batya (Sheinker) Donsky, and his brother Leib hid and survived the war.
DVOGOVSKY, Hona Velvel, and his eldest son, Zundel, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz. Their second son, Moshe Ephraim, who was in the Kovno ghetto with his family, survived with the partisans.

95

E

EPSTEIN, Dovid, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
EPSTEIN, Hirsh, and his wife and children, in Butrimantz.

F

FINK, Yaakov, hid and survived (together with his relative Dr. Abel Gabay). After the war, he emigrated to the United States where he died a few years later. Fink's three-year-old son, Shalom Zeev, was hidden in Vilna by two young Polish women, Janina Zienowicz-Zagala and her sister Helena Zienowicz (who also saved the lives of the two Gabay children). After the liberation, Shalom Zeev remained with the Zienowicz family and retained the name Wilhelm Yozef Zienowicz, under which he had been registered while in hiding. He later moved to Warsaw, Poland, where he married and had three children. Yaakov Fink's wife, Zlata Riva Menkin, a doctor, had died shortly before the war in a typhus epidemic. The fate of their five-year-old daughter, Tanya Fink, is not known. It is thought she was sent to her mother's family in northeast Lithuania, and died there; others speculate she may have been hidden and disappeared into a new identity.
FINN, Feina, in Butrimantz.
FREEDMAN, Eliahu, and his wife and their children, in Kalvaria.
FURMANSKY, Motel, and his son, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.

G

GABAY, Dr. Abel, hid and survived (together with Yaakov

96

Fink). His wife died in the Vilna ghetto. Their two children, Renana and Binyamin, were hidden in Vilna by two young Polish women, Janina Zienowicz-Zagala and her sister Helena Zienowicz (who also saved the life of Yaakov Fink's son). After the war, Dr. Gabay and his children went to live in Israel. Gabay's 90-year-old mother and his blind brother, Shmerl, poisoned themselves when the Lithuanian police came to their house to round them up.
GALUMBOVSKY, Leib, in Ritova. His wife, in Butri-mantz.
GARBOVSKY, Itzhak, and his children, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.
GARBOVSKY, Lipka, was executed in late summer 1942 in the town square in Butrimantz, after a year in hiding. Until they were betrayed, the Golombewskis, a wealthy Polish family, had hidden Lipka and several other Jews in their house. Pieter Golombewski and his brother Bronislaw were arrested on April 23, 1942, and taken to Alyta along with some of the captured Jews they had sheltered. They were never seen again.
GARBOVSKY, Yankel, and his wife and son, in Alyta.
GERSH, Dovid, and a daughter, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
GERSH, Rochel, in Butrimantz. Her son Nissan, in the army.
GERTNER, Israel, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
GOLDBERG, Mina, was shot in the Butrimantz Jewish cemetery in September by the policeman Lapinauskas.
GOLDBERG, Moshe, in Alyta.
GOLDSTEIN, Yankel, and his wife, in Alyta.
GORDON, Leah, and her children, in Vilna.

97

GURWITZ, Itzhak, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their two daughters, in Butrimantz.
GURWITZ, Moshe Yankel, in Alyta.
GURWITZ, Yosef, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
GUTFARB, Baruch, and his wife, Hannah, in Butrimantz. Their two daughters, Yetta and Sarah, in Pren with their families.

H, I

HAISHETZ, Leib, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
HALPERIN, Sonya (Lubelsky), and her children, in Butri- mantz.
HORVITZ/HURWITZ, see GURWITZ
ITSKOWITZ, Shlomo, and two sons, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.

K

KABACHNIK, Batya Hinda, and her daughter Tsvia, in Butrimantz. Her son Moshe-Dov, in Kovno. (Three daugh- ters - Liba-Leah, Abigail and Esther - are in Israel.)
KABACHNIK, Meir-Nohem (details unknown).
KABACHNIK, Shimon, and his wife, in Butrimantz. Their daughter Tsipa, in Alyta.
KALEMITZKY, Hirsh, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their daughters, in Butrimantz.
KALEMITZKY, Yosef, in Alyta. His wife Freida and their daughter Dvora, in Butrimantz.
KAPLAN, Berl, and his children, in Alyta.

98

KARABAN, Sholom, and two sons, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
KARELITZ, Aharon Boruch, and his son-in-law Meyer Freedman, in Alyta. His wife and their two daughters, in Butrimantz.
KARPAS, Chaim, and his wife Leah (Katzowitz) and their son Shlomo, in Alyta. Chaim's mother, Alte Karpas, and her daughter, in Butrimantz.
KASSEL, Nachum, and his son Meyer and daughter Batya, in Alyta.
KATZOWITZ, Zalman, in Alyta. His wife, Sarah (Kalemitzky), and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
KAUFMAN, Tzalel, and his sons, in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
KEIDANSKY, Chazan (Cantor) Zaiv, and two of his sons, in Alyta. His wife and a third son, in Butrimantz. Their daughter Leah, in Kovno.
KEIDANSKY, Professor, and his wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
KIRPICHNIK, Berl, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
KORESH, Chaim Moshe, and his son and a daughter, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
KORESH, Leib, in Alyta. His children, in Butrimantz.
KOVALSKY, Leib (location of his death unknown). His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
KOVALSKY, Paltiel (a merchant), and his wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz. Their eldest son, Mordechai (a doctor), died after the liberation when he went to the village to administer medical treatment. He was murdered by the same bandits he had treated. Two of Kovalsky's sons

99

(one named Yankel) were caught by the Lithuanians while in hiding and tortured before they were killed.
KOZIOL, Iser, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
KRAVITZ, BenZion, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
KRIM, Baile, and her children, in Butrimantz. Her husband, in Alyta.
KUGLER, Moshe, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.
KUTS, Rivka, and her son Aron and daughter-in-law, in Butrimantz.
KUTS, Shmuel, and his wife, in Serhai in the Alyta region.
KWINT, Itzhak, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.

L

LEIBOWITZ, Reuben, and his son and two daughters, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
LERMAN, Sheina, in Butrimantz. Her son Chaim, in Russia.
LEVINE, Leib (a smith), and his wife, in Butrimantz. Their son Avraham, in Kovno. Their daughter Ida and her family, in Alyta. Their daughter Mariasha Bakalerisky, in Butri- mantz. Mariasha's son, in Mariampole. The location of the death of the Levines' daughter Reizel is unknown.
LEVINE, Moshe Yosef, and his wife and their children, in Alyta.
LEVITT, Moshe, and his wife and their daughter Batya, in Butrimantz.

100

LITVIN (a teacher), in Alyta.
LOZANSKY, Dov-Berl, and his youngest daughter, Nehama, in Alyta. His wife, Dora (Itskowitz), and their daughters Riva Lozansky and Tsila Sheinker hid in the forests and survived the war. (Tsila's husband, Tevie Sheinker, was also among this group of survivors.) The eldest Lozansky daughter, Sara-Basya, and her husband, BenZion Dantsig, and their three young children - Rivka (6 years old), Aharon (4), and Itzhak Yehuda (3 months) - were all murdered in Kushidar on August 28, 1941. (With them also died the father of BenZion - Avraham Dantsig.)
LUBELSKY (given name unknown), in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz. Their son Tsvi, in Alyta. Tsvi's wife and their child, in Butrimantz.
LUFTSPRUNG, Paul, and his daughter, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.

M, N

MAZOVSKY, Mendel, and his wife Roza and their two children, in Butrimantz. (The clergyman who had hidden the family during the war murdered them only three days before the city was liberated.)
MAZOVSKY, Moshe-Egudu, in Alyta.
MAZOVSKY, Moshe Eliahu (a smith), and his wife, in Alyta. Their son Sanya and his wife, in Butrimantz.
MEIROWITZ, Yoshe-Leizer, and his wife were shot in the Butrimantz Jewish cemetery on October 1.
MICHELMAN, Cheina, and her daughters, in Butrimantz. Her sons-in-law, in Alyta.
MICHELMAN, Itzhak, in Russia. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.

101

MIKLESHANSKY, Aharon, in Alyta. His son, in Kovno.
MIKLESHANSKY, Alte, in Butrimantz. Her son, in Alyta.
MIKLESHANSKY, Binyamin, and his wife, in the Crimea. (They never returned after the war. Their fate is unknown.)
MILIUNSKY, Itzhak, and his wife were shot in the Jewish cemetery in Butrimantz on October 1.
MILLSTEIN, Hillel (a teacher), in Alyta. His wife, Chasya (Reznik), and their children, in Butrimantz.
MOSHE (the glazier), in Alyta. His wife, Tsipa-Dvora, in Butrimantz.
MOSTOWITZ, Tsvi-Hirsh, and his wife, in Butrimantz. Their two children, in Alyta.
NAGIN, Shimon, the first victim in the shtetl, was killed in Butrimantz by the activist Joseliunas and a policeman.

P

PEKER, Yaakov, in Russia. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
PERTZIKOWITZ, Itzhak, and three sons, Koppel, Israel and Feivel, and daughters Sara, Malka and Sonya, in Alyta. His wife, Leah, in Butrimantz. The eldest daughter, Gita, in Kovno. Of the whole family, only one son survived - Zalman who lives in Israel.
PERTZIKOWITZ, Rashl, in Butrimantz.
PINCHAS, Dovid (the sexton), and his wife; their son Hona and his wife, Dina (Bloch), and their children; and their son-in-law Shmuel Bloch and his wife and children; all in Butrimantz.
PITELEWITZ, Ephraim, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.

102

PLITISHKY, Hirsh, and his wife, in Alyta.
POCHTIVE, Henoch, and his daughter and son-in-law survived the Kovno ghetto. Two of Henoch's sons died in Kovno.
PRUSS, Chaya-Sarah, in Butrimantz. Her son, in Alyta.
PRUSS, Rashl, and her children, in Butrimantz.

R

RASHKOWITZ, Chaim, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
RASHKOWITZ, Dovid, in Altya. His wife and children, in Butrimantz. (Eight daughters died.) Son Reuven, in Russia.
RASHKOWITZ, Itzhak Leib, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
RASHKOWITZ, Yosef, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
RASHKOWITZ (a deaf mute) and his wife, in Butrimantz.
RATSIN, Hena Michel, in Butrimantz. Her daughters Chana and Feiga, in Alyta. Her son Zalman, in Russia. Her daughter Sheina was killed while she was in hiding near Anushishok in the Troki region.
REZNIK, Akiva, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their daughters, in Butrimantz.
REZNIK, Asher, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
REZNIK, Hitzele, and her children, in Butrimantz. Her sons-in-law, in Alyta.
REZNIK, Shmuel Mona, in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.

103

REZNIK, Yankel, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.
REZNIK, Zissel, and his son, Abba, in Alyta. His wife, Chaya, and four of their daughters - Aselya, Chasya, Pesal and Zlata, in Butrimantz. Their daughters Shifra and Dvora hid and survived. (Dvora lives in Kovno; Shifra, in Israel.)
RUDNIK, Shmuel (the shochet of Butrimantz), in Alyta. His wife, Liba, in Butrimantz. Their two sons, Avraham and Dovid and his wife, in Kovno ghetto.

S, T

SHAPIRO, Dovid Shlomo, in Alyta. His wife, Tsila, and daughters, Rochel and Berta, in Butrimantz. His mother, Etel (Marcus) Shapiro, in Butrimantz. Dr. Eliahu Shapiro, brother of Dovid Shlomo, had escaped to Russia with his wife, Hinda Segalovsky (from Kushidar), and their infant son Boris. The family survived, but on July 8,1951, Eliahu drowned accidentally in Polangen while on holiday.
SHEINKER, Chaya, in Butrimantz. Her sons Shmuel and Gershon, in Alyta. Her son Tevie hid in the forests and survived with his wife, Tsila (Lozansky). Chaya's daughter Batya (Sheinker) Gamski and her husband, Max Gamski, and their sons Reuven and Dovid, in Pren.
SHEINKER, Itzhak, in Alyta. His wife, Esther (Mikle- shansky), and their daughter, in Butrimantz. Esther gave birth to their second child near the open mass grave where they were all shot.
SHEVAH family (details unknown).
SHIMELEWITZ, Itzhak, was shot while running away; he was buried near the Lithuanian school. His wife and their children, in Alyta. His eldest son, Zalman, was killed in action in the early days of the war.

104

SHIRER, Shlomo, and his son Nachum, in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz. Their son Shimon, in Russia. Another son's death location is not known.
SHMERL from Zhusli and his wife, in Butrimantz.
SHOUFER, Yishayahu, and three of his sons, in Alyta. His son Dovid, in Russia. His wife Baile was herded together with a group of prisoners to Alyta because she had given a piece of bread to one of the prisoners. She was shot on the way to Alyta. The younger Shoufer children, in Butrimantz.
SHTUKAREWITZ, Dov-Berl, and his brother Mordechai, in Alyta. Their mother and their three sisters - Zosel, Golda, and the youngest - as well as their children, in Butrimantz.
SHUSTER, Motel, and his wife, in Butrimantz.
SHUSTER, Shimon, and his son and son-in-law, in Alyta. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
SHWARTZBARD, Chana Gitel, and her daughter, in But- rimantz. Her son-in-law, in Alyta.
SHWARTZBARD, Koppel, and his son, in Alyta.
SIRAYSKY, Yehusha, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.
SIROTA, Leib, and his son, in Alyta. His wife and their daughters, in Butrimantz.
SIROTA, Nehemye, and his wife, in Butrimantz.
SKLAR, Dovid, in Russia. His wife, Mina, and five of their children, in Butrimantz. Their eldest daughter, Mariasha, in Alyta.
SKLAR, Henoch, in Russia. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
SLOBODSKY, Dov (details unknown).
SLOBODSKY, Shmuel, and five grandchildren, in Alyta.

105

SLOMONSKY, Zelik, and his sons, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.
SMORGONSKY, Nachum, and his sons, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.
SMORGONSKY, Velvel, and his wife, in Alyta.
SOFION, Yudel, and two of his sons, in Alyta. Another son, in Russia. His wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
STRAGE, Nissan (from Poon), in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz.
STRAGE, Reuven, and his wife and their children, in Butrimantz. Their two daughters, Chana and Batya and her child, hid in the forest. A few days before the liberation, they went to a peasant to ask for food. He reported them to the police, and they were shot in the Alyta prison.
SVERSKY, Alter, and his wife and their children, in Butri- mantz.
TSAFNAS, Yankel, and a son and daughter, in Alyta. Another son went to Russia with the army. His wife and their other children, in Butrimantz.

V, W

VETSTEIN, Sarah, and her daughter, in Butrimantz. Her son, in Alyta.
VINETSKY, Berl (a teacher), and his wife and their children, in Altya.
VISHAYSKY, Moshe Motel, and his wife and their daughter, in Butrimantz.
VITKIND, Rabbi Avraham-Moshe, and two of his sons and daughters Golda and Mira, in Alyta. His wife and their youngest daughter, Libala, in Butrimantz.

106

VOLPIANSKY, Dvora, in Butrimantz.
VOLPIANSKY, Feivel, and his family, in Alyta.
VOLPIANSKY, Israel, in Alyta.
VOLPIANSKY, Meyer, was betrayed while in hiding by a Christian whom he had entrusted with his possessions. He was tortured before his death. His wife and their child, in Butrimantz.
VOLPIANSKY, Yosef, in Alyta.
WILENSKY, Golda, in Butrimantz. Her son, in Alyta.

Y

YANKELEWITZ, Yaakov, in Alyta. His wife, in Butri-mantz. Their daughters and grandchildren, in Alyta. Of one son-in-law nothing is known. Their second son-in-law, Shimon Shirer, died in Russia.
YANOVITSKY, Etel, in Butrimantz. Her daughter Feiga was caught while she was in hiding at the Parankava village near Visokidvor.
YAVEROWITZ, Pesach, and his children, in Alyta. His wife, in Butrimantz.
YUDKOWSKY, Moshe, in Alyta. His wife, Shprintza (Mikleshansky), in Butrimantz.

At the beginning of the war, when the Germans invaded Poland, some Jews were either driven out to Lithuania or fled there on their own. Seven refugee families from Poland are accounted for in Butrimantz:

LUBOVSKI, Rabbi (from Pinsk), and his wife and their youngest son, in Butrimantz. Two other sons, in Alyta.

107

PELTIN family (from Suwalki), father and mother, in Alyta. Their children, in Butrimantz.
PINSKI, Raphael, in Alyta. His wife and their children, in Butrimantz. One son, in Mariampole.
ROGRADSKI family, father and son, in Alyta. Mother and children, in Butrimantz.
SIRAISKI family (from Suwalki), mother and children, in Butrimantz.
SLOMIANSKI, Chaim, in Alyta. His wife and their two children, in Butrimantz.
STRASHZINSKI family, mother and daughter, in Butri- mantz. Son, in Alyta.

Also murdered in Butrimantz were Jews from the nearby shtetlach of Stoklishok, Birshtan and Poon. Their names are not known.

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